Why I Don't Like Sonic Games

Sonic the Hedgehog was the very first Sonic game I've ever played and I liked it a lot. The levels look cool, the colors are vibrant, the music's f**king amazing. Then I played the Sega Genesis games. The levels look cooler, the colors are more vibrant, but all I could think was HOLY SH*T, SPEEEEEEEEEEEED! So I became a Sonic fan. I was always on the lookout for the next Sonic. I never owned a DreamCast, but I was enthralled to see Sonic Adventure 2 and then later Sonic Adventure 1 come to the GameCube, both with extra content not found on the DreamCast versions. I own Sonic Mega Collection and Sonic Gems Collection, I once had the PC versions of Sonic R and Sonic 3D Blast, hell, I even used to have the Sonic & Knuckles Collection. I own Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic 06, Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Generations, both episodes of Sonic 4, both entries in the Storybook series, not to mention a good number of handheld titles like the Advance and Rush series. And thanks to Sonic Adventure DX for the GameCube, I was able to play all of the Sonic Game Gear titles. Yep, I was a regular Sonic aficionado.

But then something peculiar happened... I kinda stopped liking Sonic games. Not just the modern games, but the old ones as well. It was slow and hardly noticeable, but as my time progressed through adulthood my taste in video games was changing and I became more and more cynical towards the games that I enjoyed and I began to notice their flaws more clearly. Although I still liked most of these games, Sonic games, however, were a special case. Going back and playing these games again, I found myself just not having fun with most of them. Why did I like those games when I was a kid? Was it because of the cool looking levels? the vibrant colors? the kickass music? Because when I remember my experience with those games as a child, I also remember getting frustrated with them, but I thought maybe that was because I was just a kid who didn't know any better.

But I think maybe something else was going on: I think I was just so impressed by not just the levels and music, but the speed, the presentation, the loops, the characters, etc., basically a lot of stuff that had nothing to do with actually playing the games. In fact, I don't think I even cared about the gameplay up until just recently. Back then, I never cared if a game was good or bad; I only liked them because... well, they were games at all. Video games were still a new thing to me throughout my k-12 years and I was always playing new ones so I never really had any quality standards. Super Mario 64 was as good as Superman 64, Street Fighter II was as good as Shaq Fu, Logical Journey of the Zoombinis Deluxe was as good as Mario's Time Machine, and Sonic the Hedgehog was as good as Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind. When it came to Sonic games, that mentality somehow carried over into adulthood...

And that's when it occured to me... I never really liked Sonic games; I just thought I did.

This post has been edited by The Negative Ion: 03 January 2019 - 11:44 AM

I still think the momentum based gameplay engines of the genesis are some of the best 2D engines ever made, with clear rewards for skill and mastery of the system. Also a technical marvel for their age.

Okay cool, you don't like Sonic that's fine. It's your opinion, but uh why did you join a Sonic community? I mean I don't like Harvest Moon, so I'm not going to waste my time joining a fan forum to state why I don't like the games.

I'm really curious what it is about Sonic that makes people feel the need to share this in the most obnoxious way possible, like everyone who still enjoys the games is just a cheap mark who was somehow tricked into thinking the games were good.

I played some of the original Sonic Adventure (which we are all aware has not aged particularly well) the other day and still had a blast with it, I'm sorry the series has lost that spark for you.

Okay, I actually watched the entire thing, and really enjoyed it. Your editing was really well-done (especially loved the Mega Man stage select bit), and it's clear that you've dedicated a great deal of time and effort to thinking critically about the subject. And despite being a lifelong fan who _does_ consider Sonic 3 his favorite game of all time, I never once felt like you were trying to claim that those who disagree with you were "having fun wrong." (Well aside from that one part where you put a fire effect over the screen and said that a game rewarding replays is "retarded." That was pushing it.)

But I'm sure that was intentional hyperbole, and the point stands! I really appreciated how clear you made it from the start that this was you laying out YOUR problems with Sonic games, and not trying to claim that NOBODY ELSE should like Sonic games. And really, it's perfectly okay if you don't have any fun with these titles, and I'm not gonna tell you you're WRONG, either. Everyone has different preferences. I can't stand turn-based strategy games for the most part, and my solution to that would be to make them less complicated, faster-paced, and more reliant on twitchy action. In other words, I'd ruin what fans of the genre actually like about it, haha.

More to the point, I think you're onto something with the idea that Sonic games, especially the more recent ones, could go a long way to incentivising replays if they actually _did_ directly reward you for speeding through a stage skillfully. You see, back in the OLDEN DAYS, prior to even Sonic 3's save system, the reward for getting better at Emerald Hill, Chemical Plant, Aquatic Ruin, and Casino Night was that you'd get to take another crack at Mystic Cave that much faster! With no save system, and as a kid who had infinite free time and two video games, me getting better at Sonic 2 was something that happened inherently. The fact that games since the advent of 3D have, more and more, STOPPED incentivising and rewarding replayability, and that modern gamers are so unaccustomed to it and, in fact, frustrated BY it, is one of the biggest reasons that classic Sonic titles have the reputation they do in some circles - that of "never being good to begin with." The industry has a very different mindset to this stuff, now.

Yeah I think this is just getting older also. I still enjoy video games and Sonic games included but no way near as much as in my youth when video games were these beautiful fantastical experiences of which nothing else came close. Also to echo everyone else there doesn't seem much point in you being here if you don't like the games this forum revolves around? Overlord is also going to trash this as soon as he sees it. So you may want to try to positively contribute with your remaining trial posts if you want to stay. That's just friendly advice. No negative sentiment intended.

did you actually join a sonic forum just to pimp your video about why you don't like sonic

Aerosol, on 03 January 2019 - 02:44 PM, said:

Holy shit this is fantastic.

Ravenfreak, on 03 January 2019 - 02:56 PM, said:

Okay cool, you don't like Sonic that's fine. It's your opinion, but uh why did you join a Sonic community? I mean I don't like Harvest Moon, so I'm not going to waste my time joining a fan forum to state why I don't like the games.

Yash, on 03 January 2019 - 02:56 PM, said:

Ok? I'm really curious what it is about Sonic that makes people feel the need to share this in the most obnoxious way possible, like everyone who still enjoys the games is just a cheap mark who was somehow tricked into thinking the games were good.

iknorite

It's gonna be fun to see if the OP even returns to this forum to begin with, let alone acknowledge the big elephant in the room they just conjured up.

I would further elaborate, but the thread's got twelve replies already (including me) and I don't think I need to feed it any further.

Why is everyone being such a dick? I know people in real life who hate Classic Sonic and I don't act like this to them. In fact, my best friend has played Sonic 3 and Sonic Mania and disliked both games on a fundamental level. He just doesn't like the game's appeal, and there's nothing wrong with that.

I sometimes worry that Sonic 3 is treated with such reverence that people genuinely think it's objectively perfect.